Dark Matter
is the sixth full-length album by
SPC ECO
, a project centered around former
Curve
guitarist
Dean Garcia
and his daughter
Rose Berlin
, with contributions from numerous guest musicians. While the group started out making noisy yet poppy electronic-tinged shoegaze in the vein of
Garcia
's former band, it abandoned guitars for its 2014 album,
The Art of Pop
, embracing more of an icy synth pop sound.
finds the group morphing further into dark, moody trip-hop, with thick, slithering beats and heavy, echo-covered bass enveloping
Berlin
's occasionally Auto-Tuned vocals. Her voice inevitably brings to mind
's
Toni Halliday
, but there's a fair bit of '90s-era
Elizabeth Fraser
in her as well, and plenty of this album (particularly the swirling, intoxicating standout "Let It Be Always") suggests what might have happened if the former
Cocteau Twins
chanteuse had started a side project with members of
Massive Attack
following the success of their 1998 classic
Mezzanine
.
's lyrics live up to the album's title, with subject matter typically concerning loneliness, regret, paranoia, and heartbreak. Tense, creeping ballads such as "Meteor" and "Under My Skin" (which ends with the line "all I fear is dying alone") find
at her most aching and vulnerable, while the trap-influenced beats of "Down Low" prove that trip-hop can successfully be updated for the post-
Purity Ring
era of downtempo electronic pop music. ~ Paul Simpson